The 'preclinical' phase of Alzheimer's disease is a future target for treatment, but additional research is essential to understand the relationship between β-amyloid burden and cognition during this time. We investigated this relationship using a large sample of apparently healthy older adults (N=177), which also enabled examination of whether the… (More)

A decline in cognition greater than expected with ageing and accompanied by subjective cognitive concerns or functional changes may be indicative of a dementing disorder. The capacity to correctly identify cognitive decline relies on comparisons with normative data from a suitably matched healthy reference group with relatively homogeneous demographic… (More)

The ability of hospital staff to get a patient to the right bed at the right time is dependent on bed occupancy, and is a key issue in all acute hospitals. This paper seeks to identify the impact of admission and discharge timing on hospital occupancy with reference to the peak in daily admissions and discharges. Patient admissions data from 23 Queensland… (More)

Introduced with a promise to reduce overcrowding in the Emergency Department (ED) and the associated morbidity and mortality linked to bed access difficulties, the National Emergency Access Target (NEAT) is now over halfway through transitionary arrangements towards a target of 90% of patients that visit a hospital ED being admitted or discharged within 4… (More)

There is an urgent need in the acute health system to use resources as efficiently as possible. One such group of resources are operating theatres, which have an important impact on patient flow through a hospital. Data-driven insights into the use of operating theatres can suggest improvements to minimise wastage and improve theatre availability. In this… (More)

The complexity of hospital operations ensures that one-size-fits-all solutions seldom work. As hospitals turn to evidence based strategies to redesign flow, it is critical that they tailor the strategies to suit their individual service. This paper analyses the effect of hospital occupancy on inpatient and emergency department patient flow parameters at the… (More)

Effecting early discharge is a widely recommended strategy for improving patient flow in acute hospitals. This paper analyses the impact of inpatient discharge timing on Emergency Department (ED) flow parameters such as access block and length of stay, while comparing this to the effect on hospital occupancy, to arrive at an understanding of a 'whole of… (More)